When I say "you" I nine out of ten times mean it in the general way. Just like I didn't mean to attack Jaguar personally but referred to all reviewers that I think don't carry out their function properly for reasons mentioned in earlier comments of mine. I hardly ever engage in a pathetic online battle on a personal level. There's enough of that crap going on here already.

About the exploration and Questmarking stuff... Risen 2 is made of multiple different areas who aren't frustratingly big. Trust me, when a guy says to look "somewhere south of the watch-tower", that's absolutely fine in Risen 2. If you want him to elaborate more on the position, you might indeed just ditch the exploration part and go with the markers.

I agree that there's basically a fine line between being too overly subjective and just being subjective. Like I said before, of course there's subjectivity in reviews. I completely understand that otherwise I'd end up making this kind of hassle about every review. My problem is with reviews like Jaguar's review and IGN's video review. They keep bashing a game so fucking hard, that not only the feeble minded get biased to a point they won't give the gamea second thought. I find that a freaking shame and not only that, I find it an utter, UTTER sign of incompetence from the reviewer.

If a game is truly that fucking bad -- and I mean THAT bad as to what Jaguar and IGN made it out to be -- then nobody would like it.. let alone love it. And I love it. And my cousin loves it. And since yesterday my brother-in-law and three of my friends (all who've tried it) love it.

Is that the sign of one clusterfuck of a game? One that deserves a 2 out of eight? Exactly. It doesn't. Which is the case in point.

I'm not scared of exploring, I dislike immersion breaking exploring. If someone says "it's somewhere south of the watch-tower", I should be able to ask "how far south? Is it as far south as this rock" *points to rock on map* "or is it just by this thicket here" *points to wooded area".

Dialogue in games is so far from realistic that sadly, we need concessions to make up for this. I would say that marks on the map for hidden treasure are quest markers (at least they're markers, I don't know if these count as quests in R2). Markers displayed on the compass are annoying and markers displayed in the game world are very poor ideas and should be optional, but markers on maps are basically the same thing in that they give the same info, but in a less obnoxious way.

Reviewers do need to avoid being overly subjective, yes, but there is a point where they need to give opinions on things. Otherwise, it's not a review but a feature list. If a review is of the subjective opinion that a game is a steaming pile of horseshit, none of the review is going to be very nice for the developer and the game's fans.

Imo, its all a little bit too subjective in most reviews, Jaguar's included. Don't forget they give the game an incredibly low score.

No Questmarkers was a decision in development of the game, not some stupid mistake. If you find a treasure map, for example, the place where the treasure is hidden is marked on your map! Also, so far all my questgivers have given me directions. "Its somewhere south of the watchtower" for example. Sure, that doesn't pin-point anything but how freaking scared of exploring are you? Complaints such as those just reek of impatience in those who complain.

The reason I mentioned I have been playing games since I was 5 was to show that I know what I'm talking about, implying with that that I'm FINE with people being overly subjective in their reviews as long as they don't let their taste influence the entire review and its score! For example, I freaking HATE games like God/Gears of War, but that doesn't mean I'll piss all over the game with a review I'd write.

The idiotic part of bashing a game into a FUBAR state is that many people will decide not to try/buy the game because of it.

This game is not, in any way, a clusterfuck. The fact that there are allot f unbiased people enjoying the hell out of it is proof enough. That fact alone make such horrid reviews unjustified.

Being a reviewer doesn't mean you just being subjective; voice your opinion with stalwart bravado. Every freaking simpleton can do that.

I assumed Jaguar was being sarcastic when he said he was the only negative reviewer of Risen 2 as all the reviews I've checked out have been negative; albeit taking ~6/10 as a negative score which it is, but shouldn't be. Maybe he wasn't being sarcastic, I'm not sure.

Things like quest markers and quick level-ups are divisive and subjective. I found it very hard in Gothic 3 to find things, virtually everything took some searching (not always a bad thing) and some things made me resort to Google (always a bad thing). Quest markers aren't realistic, but when you're constrained by dialogue trees (i.e. you can't ask people for directions or ask a quest giver to elaborate on a location), it's an understandable feature. IMHO a fairly quick level-up or two is a good idea just to help players understand how the game works but that's a subjective thing.

Another thing - I assume you're the guy who's been playing since 1985? First off, change your clothes and have a shower! Oh, not continuously? Good. Er, right, my actual point - if a game is accessible only to people who have been playing PC games for decades, then it is very, very badly designed. Moreover, gameplay innovations since 1985 are generally a good thing. Having an unfair difficulty curve is a bad thing and whether or not Risen 2 does have an unfair difficulty curve is subjective and the reviewer can only really give his or her own view on this. They could have been playing PC games since 1984 for all I know, but even if they starting playing games in 2010, their opinion isn't invalid.

Quboid wrote on Apr 29, 2012, 16:20:Perhaps they genuinely don't rate the game? Do you have any particular reason to think that Jaguar is an impatient, arrogant asshole, or do you just not agree with his opinion and are enough of an arrogant asshole to lay into him for this?

It sucks for a developer who has worked hard on a title to see their work get slammed but perhaps their work deserves to be slammed. It must also suck to be a critic when you routinely get accused of being publishers' bitches, yet when they call it as they see it they get more stick.

Let one thing be clear. This wasn't only targeted at Jaguar. He may have the delusion that he's the first guy who wrote a bad review, but he evidently didn't check YouTube and the European websites before drawing that conclusion.

When I read.. apperantly "Jaguar's" review, I thought it was riddled with signs that he never played the other Gothics and former Risen. If that's true or not is beside the point, the fact that it gives that impression is.

I'm busy and always on my iPhone so I'll keep it short.. but complaints like "I level up too slowly" and "unfair difficulty" are one of said signs. Signs that he's used to mainstream Amalur kinda crap is something like complaining that the game lacks Questmarkers. I know.. that's so 2005.

Apart from Jaguar's review.. check the IGN review video. That impromptu review will matter-of-factly stop thousands of people from buying the game. Curious how a guy that's been playing PC games since 1985 as well as his cousin think the game has you pleasantly engaged from the get-go.

Perhaps they genuinely don't rate the game? Do you have any particular reason to think that Jaguar is an impatient, arrogant asshole, or do you just not agree with his opinion and are enough of an arrogant asshole to lay into him for this?

It sucks for a developer who has worked hard on a title to see their work get slammed but perhaps their work deserves to be slammed. It must also suck to be a critic when you routinely get accused of being publishers' bitches, yet when they call it as they see it they get more stick.

A tiny factor is bullshit, I admit. But every Gothic game, since the first, had rather clunky combat. I always liked it, though, and I matter of factly still do in Risen 2. Once you get kick and riposte the game gets that really nice pirate swashbuckler'ish melee feeling. Nothing to get all worked up about and rate a game so goddamn low without giving it a fucking chance.

Pisses me off how a bunch of impatient, arrogant asshole game critics get shit on a game so bad. The devs that put their heart and soul in it -- especially devs like PB -- will feel it hard.

The combat is important. If I just wanted a good story, I'd read a book. If I only needed visuals, I'd watch TV or a movie. The entire package has to be adequate, you can't have one important aspect of your game simply fail.

They nailed the pirate feeling. The swordcombat is rather bad... but any fan of the true Gothic series knows it's hardly about the combat.

I beg to differ. The combat was one of the biggest appeals to me in the previous games (except Gothic 3). I loved the fact that you had to learn each enemy's movement and attack patterns, then perfectly time your blocks/dodges and counter-attacks in order to defeat them. That made every encounter engaging. Conversely, in Risen 2 and Gothic 3, you just spam the attack button as quickly as possible. If you get the first hit, you're almost guaranteed to win.

I'm enjoying Risen 2 aside from the combat. I really don't understand why they removed dodge. It makes no sense. They should have learned after Gothic 3 that fans don't enjoy button-mashing (which is why they went back to the traditional combat model in Risen), so why revert to it in Risen 2?

Also, from what I've played thus far, companions aren't useless. In fact, they're overpowered. Patty is seemingly invincible and can single-handedly wipe out groups of enemies. Maybe this changes later in the game?

Well I can only speak for me but I enjoy Risen 2 a lot more than i thought.. Combat is ABSOLUTELY terrible though. I do like the characters and the story is great, Chani for the win ;p There are many alternate solutions to everything and you get near free exploration thanks to "sail to any island you want and leave whenever you want"

So yeah, even though Combat is a terrible button mash affair (there is no dodge whatsoever ~.~) you do get a real fun pirate RPG .. and how many of these do you know?

Allies are definitely not useless (Chani heals you) while others are just distractors. Combat against humans does get better once you get blades 4 (counter attack) but against enemies and monsters it is really an abhorrent nightmare of combat. Its Gothic 3 boars all over again.

Also, finding treasure is FUN ;p But a 2/8 ? .. disagree, the game is a 70 of 100 to me - soundtrack is great, voice is good. Missions are fairly funny and cunning plays a large role (as it should, for a pirate!).. but then, tastes differ.. for me combat is the only negative